“News that the cuts offered by the White House are not real, but instead rely on gimmicks and tricks, is upsetting but not surprising; this has been the scheme all along. The president offered a budget in February that would double our nation’s debt while declaring that it would ‘not add more to the debt.’ He delivered a speech in April saying that he had a new deficit reduction plan to reduce our debt by $4 trillion while, in reality, his plan would grow the debt $2.2 trillion beyond the CBO baseline over the next ten years. Democrats in Washington have shut down the entire budget process and failed to put an honest plan on paper.

Enough empty promises. We’re projected to spend $46 trillion over the next ten years—a 57% increase between 2011 and 2021. But all the president and Senate Democrats have been willing to do is offer the appearance of savings while fighting to preserve a spending path that will bankrupt the greatest nation on Earth. It is time to bring this process into the light of day. I have introduced a measure, along with my Republican colleagues, requiring that the legislative text of a debt bill be made public at least 7 days before any vote is held.

We need a seismic restoration of responsibility—and it will not happen unless, for the first time since taking office, President Obama puts a credible budget plan on paper.”

[Note: To view the text of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s speech in which he lays out the actual level of spending cuts the White House has indicated it is willing to accept, please click here.]